Comparison of psychosocial impact of strabismus on pediatric and adult patients in India

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the psychosocial impact of squint on children with that on adult patients in India. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, a twenty-question quality-of-life instrument ASO-20 was administered to patients with strabismus to study the psychosocial impact of strabismus on them. The results were compiled in an Excel sheet and analyzed statistically. Results: Thirty-two children (5–18 years) and 24 adults (>18 years) were included in the study. It was observed that all the adults responded that they always noticed that they have strabismus as against significantly less (81.25%) number of children who did so. Similarly, 75% of adults responded that strabismus affected their relations with other people, whereas only 37.5% of children felt that strabismus affected their relations with other people. While 95.83% of adults felt that opportunities (social interaction or at work) were fewer because of strabismus, only 37.5% of the children felt so. Similarly, while all the adults responded that they frequently imagined that other people were thinking about their eyes, only half of the children (56.25%) felt so. The difference is statistically significant. Significantly more (83.3%) adults responded that they had more difficulty in making friends because of strabismus, as against this, only one-fourth (25%) of the children felt so. The difference is statistically significant. Both the groups felt that strabismus bothered them, people noticed strabismus while interacting with them and they felt different (inferior) because of strabismus. Although the percentage who felt so was more in adults as compared to children, the difference was not statistically significant. Similarly, more children (75%) said that strabismus never hindered their performance as compared to adults (66.67%), however, the difference was not statistically significant. Conclusions: Strabismus has negative psychosocial effects on the affected individual which intensify with age.